Brooklyn Law Scholar to Head ACLU

For the first time in 17 years, the American Civil Liberties Union has a new public face. On Saturday, the group elected constitutional law scholar Susan Herman as president.

Herman, a professor at Brooklyn Law School, told the Associated Press that she intended to reach out to communities where the ACLU is "not well-known or not well-understood."

"There's a very widespread misimpression that the ACLU opposes religion" despite efforts to protect religious expression rights, Herman is quoted as saying. She added that she was surprised "there aren't more people in the African-American community that believe the ACLU is their organization."

Herman had served in ACLU leadership for nearly 20 years, most recently as the group's general counsel. She succeeds Nadine Strossen, the group's longest-serving president (installed in 1991) and the first woman to lead the organization.